Patterned effects on crepe fabrics



Patented July 6, 1937 PATTERNED EFFECTS ON CREPE FABRICS Albert Bodmer, Charles Muhr, and Ernst Weiss, Wattwil, Switzerland, assignors to Heberlein Patent Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York No Drawing. Application March 19, 1934, Serial No. 716,430. In Germany May 22, 1933 Claims.

This invention relates to a process for producing patterned effects on crepe fabrics .and to patterned fabrics obtained thereby.

Crepe fabrics are well-known. Zhey are usually made by weaving yarns, all or a part of which are highly twisted, and then subjecting these yarns to hot soap, caustic solution or other baths to produce the well-known curly or crimped effect characteristic of crepe.

The principal object of the present invention is to produce new pattern ffects on such crepe fabrics. p

The invention comprises the novel products as 13 well as the novel processes and steps of processes according to which such products are manufactured, the specific embodiments of which are described hereinafter by way of example and g in accordance with which we now prefer to practice the invention.

We have found in accordance with our invention that new pattern effects can be obtained on crepe fabrics through treatment with a parchmentizing agent such as sulphuric acid to produce a pattern thereon. When fabrics prepared for 25 creping are treated by a creping bath, they shrink considerably. We have found, however, that treatment of such fabric either before or after the final crepe effect has been produced (that is, sometime before the final shrinkage to produce 30 the crepe effect is made) with a parchmentizing agent, such assulphuric acid, will alter the fabric over those areas treated with sulphuric acid to give the desired pattern or background so that those areas substantially do not shrink during 5 the creping. However, the crepe area which is not treated with sulphuric .acid does shrink and r with the contraction of this area the non-shrinking part treated by the sulphuric acid tends to wrinkle up. The result of this is to produce a 40 background of crepe with the usual crimped crepe effect and a transparent or parchmentized design area in which small wrinkles or folds occur.

The following are examples of the process employing the steps in the manner in which we now 5 prefer to practice the invention. These examples are purely illustrative and are not to be construed in a limiting sense.

Example 1.-A crepe georgette fabric made of viscose silk asit comes from the. loom ready to be 50 subjected to treatment to produce the crepe effect,'is printed with a reserve and then treated with parchmentizing acidsulphuric acid of 50 B.for 8 seconds at C. and after the acid is washed out and the reserve removed, the material 55 is placed in a hot soap bath at about 80- C. in the usual manner for creping and a crepe effect is produced. Thereupon only the' previously reserved parts of the fabric will shrink while the unreserved portions treated with acid will retain their straight and smooth appearance. Thereafter if the fabric so treated is held loose while drying, then the shrunk portions of the fabric cause the aci'd treated parts to assume puffed or wave-like elevations and corresponding hollows which at the same time, by reason of their transparency caused by the parchmentizing, differ from the usual crepe appearance.

Example 2.Fabrics which are already in creped condition may also be employed to produce the new patterned effects. A cotton fabric for 15 creping containing a yarn highly twisted in both directions, i. e. right and left twist, is bleached in the usual manner. Great shrinkage thereby takes place and the crepe effect is produced on thefabric. While the fabric is drying and still in moist state, it is put under tension along its width and length so that it assumes substantially its original size before creping. It is then printed with an adhering reserve. It is then treated with a parchmentizing agent-sulphuric acid of 53 B. for about 10 seconds at 10 C. Thereafter the acid is washed out and the reserve is removed. The fabric so treated is then passed through a. dilute hot caustic soda crepe-producing bath of 12 B. at about 95 C. and is then finished in the usual manner. The result is similar to that described in Example 1.

Example 3.-Natural silk crepe de Chine is v boiled oil and dried under the greatest possible tension. The so pre-treated fabric is printed with an adhering reserve and thereafter treated in a sodium -rhodanate solution of 36.5 B. during 5 minutes at C. The salt and reserve are then washed out and the fabric is treated in a soap bath at 80 C. The result is similar to that 40 described in Example 1.

The new pattern effects can be produced on crepe fabrics of all kinds containing crepe yarns which can be parchmentized. Besi'lci yarns of vegetable fibres such as cotton and linen, the various artificial silks ofregenerated cellulose, and animal fibers, for instance highly twisted fine wool and silk yarns, may be subjected to the process. Parchmentizing may be effected by means of various substances known for,this purpose such as: Alkali hydroxides, especially sodalye and potash-lye; mineral acids such as for example sulphuric acid, phosphoric acld, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid; organic acids such as. formic acid; solutions of mono and,comp lex salts such as zinc-chloride, sulpho-cyanide salts,

copperand nickel oxide ammonia, alkaline copper glycerine solution. In making the pattern, the reserve process is preferred. However, direct printing of the thickened parchmentizing means on the fabric may also be used, if desired.

The fabrics produced by the above examples are pattern crepe effects of individualistic beauty, which have not heretofore been known so far as we are aware. They present a crepe background with a transparent or parchmentized de sign or vice versa, the "transparent or parchmentized area being characterized by folds or ripples across its surface.

The treated fabrics'may be dyed in various.

ways. Because of the strong aflinity of the parchmentized sections for dyestuffs tone in tone effects can be produced in this manner. In theprocess of reserving the fabric, dyestuffs may be in the art, after understanding our invention,-

that changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of our invention, and we aim in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A process for producing patterned effects on crepe fabrics which comprises treating a fabric for creping at some time prior to its final shrinkage with a reserve and a parchmentizing agent to produce a patterned design removing the reserve and then subjecting the fabric to a creping treatment, and thereby causing folds or wrinkles to occur in the parchmentized portion through shrinkage of .the crepe portion.

2. A process according to claim 1 in which the fabric for creping is treated with a parchmentizing agent without preliminary creping and then finally crcped.

3. A process according to claim 1 in which the fabric for creping is shrunk to produce a crepe effect and then stretched, the parchmentizing agent is applied thereto and the fabric is thereafter finally shrunk.

4. A process for producing patterned effects on crepe fabrics which comprises treating an artificial silk, prepared of highly twisted yarn for creping with a reserve and then with sulphuric acid of suflicient severity to produce a transparent or parchmentized condition therein to produce a patterned design, then removing the translucent portion having wrinkles or folds therein.

ALBERT BODMER.

CHARLES MUHR. ERNST WEISS. 

